Ronnie and Nancy_ Their Path to the White House - Bob Colacello [233]
Clark attempted to rectify the problem by setting up meetings between Reagan and individual legislators or small groups, rather than having him
“just go make speeches to them en masse and then leave.” Haerle continued, “It was very difficult still, to get him to mix socially. The thing Ronald Reagan did least well is go across to the Comstock Club in Sacramento and have a drink with the boys. It was like pulling teeth to get him to do that. He would invite them out to his . . . rented mansion . . . and there would be dinner parties there for groups of legislators and their wives. But the parties were quite rigid, and the legislators were always let know one way or another that about 9:30 or ten o’clock they were expected to go home, please.”90
There is a scene in the 1967 documentary Nancy: Portrait of a Politician’s Wife that shows how naive she was about her role, and how different or disconnected she was from the typical spouse of a government official. California’s new First Lady is giving a tour of the office she redecorated for her husband to the new First Ladies of Arizona and Oregon. Nancy is perfectly coiffed and made up, with the barest hint of coral lipstick, wearing a trendy 3 7 4
Ronnie and Nancy: Their Path to the White House chemise in a black-and-white Op Art print. Her guests are wearing prim blouses over straight skirts and have schoolteachers’ hairdos. “This is the study I did for Ronnie’s birthday,” Nancy tells them as they enter the wood-paneled inner office, which has English-style mahogany furniture and warm red carpeting.
“What a nice present,” says the First Lady of Oregon, Mrs. Tom McCall.
“And there are the jellybeans,” says Nancy, pointing to a big apothe-cary jar on the Governor’s desk. “You’ve heard about our jellybeans?”
“No, I don’t know about your jellybeans,” Mrs. McCall replies.
“Well, Ronnie loves jellybeans, and I discovered over many years that there are jellybeans—and jellybeans.”
“You mean they aren’t all the same?” asks Arizona’s first lady, Mrs. Jack Williams.
“Uh-uh. Uh-uh. And the best kinds are little tiny ones—they have the best flavor.”
“Is this your son’s decision?” Oregon again.
“This is my husband! When I said Ronnie, I meant big Ronnie.”
The wives of the Governors of Arizona and Oregon try hard not to look too amazed, then titter along with the Governor of California’s wife, who goes on about the jellybeans: “So anyway, there’s a special place that I get them. And this friend of ours gave us this container to have in the office. And when I first put it in here, all the other men would come in and say, ‘Oh, really, jellybeans.’ Now the first thing they do is come in and head for this, and I have to constantly keep it filled.”91
“July 8, 1967: Dinner for Governor and Mrs. Reagan . . .” Betsy Bloomingdale was reading from her party book. “Caviar cream cheese, quenelles of salmon, medallions of veal. We had eighty-six people. It was an interesting sort of list.” She reeled off the names: “Bill and Betty Adams, the Brissons—that’s Rosalind Russell—the Bennys, the Bergens, the de Cordovas, Lady Colefax, Sammy Cahn—you know, the famous songwriter—
the Dohenys, the Douglases, the Deutsches, one Dunne—that would be Dominick, or was it Irene? Bill Frye, Sophie Gimbel—oh, yes, she came from New York—Jimmy Galanos, Richard Gully, the Jorgensens, the Tom Joneses—he’s Northrop Aviation, the LeRoys, the Lohmans, the Millands, one May—it must have been Anita because Tom died somewhere in there—the Minnellis, Lorena Nidorf, the Perkinses—that would be Erlenne and Voltaire—the Starks, the Steins, the Schreibers, the Smiths—
Sacramento: 1967–1968
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Jean and Bill—the Thorntons—Tex Thornton was Litton Industries—
Lady Caroline Townshend—whoever the hell that is—and, of course, the Wilsons.” The indefatigable Betsy had also recorded those unable to attend, including the Tuttles, the Salvatoris, and the Darts, as well as the Jimmy Stewarts and Cesar Romero.92
Carolyn Deaver told me, “The Reagans had two lives, one in Sacramento and one in Los Angeles.”93 The couple